


So Small and Significant

by Hedgi



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen, Set after the season one finale, but then also less fluffy because I need angst, fairly fluffy all things considered, genfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 11:14:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9232403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hedgi/pseuds/Hedgi
Summary: With everyone scattered, Shiro has to chose who to go after first, and it isn't much of a choice. He promised himself weeks ago not to fail the Holts again.He may have to go farther than he thought to keep that promise.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Meriadoc](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meriadoc/gifts).



 

Shiro’s head ached. It usually did for one reason or another; he was less than diligent about drinking enough water or eating enough food unless one of the others—Hunk, more often than not—prompted, and he rarely got enough sleep. Still, this was not a headache brought on by any of that. He suspected it had to do, instead, with the lump on his head where he’d crashed against the wall when he and the Black Lion had…something. Been ejected? No, Allura _wouldn’t._ If not ejected…ripped? Memory was a tricky thing, but flickers and flashes, and understanding that almost felt like it wasn’t his own, pulsed into clarity. They’d all gone flying, been dragged out even as the Castle had slipped through the wormhole. Scattered.

He had to find the others, and not just because scattered they couldn’t form Voltron, couldn’t hope to fight Zarkon. He had to find them because they were his crew, they were his friends, the closest thing to a family he had had in far too long. He focused on the displays Black showed him, too focused on the thought of _find the others_ to realize that  Black was doing exactly that without him having to ask outright or hit the sequence of buttons they’d figured out called up Allura’s maps.

He could see the white blot that was the Castle ship, so far from his own location, and sought out the other markers. Blue, Yellow, Green. If Red was present, he couldn’t find it in the mess of stars, and his heart clenched. _Keith. No, Worry would help no one, Worry only brought the strong down like prey_ , he couldn’t waste time. He had to get to the others, spread out across the screen. Going to one would mean leaving the others, literally turning his back on the others. Allura and Coran. Lance. Hunk. Katie.

It was no choice at all. He was moving before he even realized, racing across the vast emptiness towards that green flicker without even setting coordinates. The Black Lion, he realized, knew the decision before he was even aware of making it.

* * *

 

There were trees on the planet. Kind of. Mangrov-y types, spreading and green.

Shiro wasn’t sure how long it took him to get there—he slept briefly with the Black Lion flying herself a few times, and ate from the stores of space goo Hunk and Coran had insisted everyone keep alongside the medkits. He was glad of those, and gladder still of the stores of water. It must have been days that they—that he—chased after the speck on the screens that was the Green Lion. Shiro spent most of it straining his eyes, and the eyes of his Lion, hoping that they weren’t too Late. Too Late to stop what, Shiro refused to think, forced a shut down of that train of thought. Katie—Pidge—was strong, and Smart. She’d survived the invasion of the Castle and fared far better than he or Lance had, for that matter.

Finally, they were on top of the map marking, and a planet stretched out its surface below, bits of brownish and greenish and a lilac that seemed foreign—alien--, but Shiro thought might be water. Or the equivalent. They skimmed the tops of trees, and dipped down. Black’s claws dug into soft earth, closer to mud than soil. Actually, upon landing it seemed more like swamp. Shiro wasted no time in calling for Pidge over the intercoms. At a distance, there was risk of someone or something else picking up the signal, Black had somehow gotten across to him. So close, that risk lessened.

“Pidge?”

“Shiro?” Pidge’s voice came over clear, almost cracking with relief. “Shiro, is that you? ‘R am I just imagining again?”

Shiro didn’t like that _again._ “It’s me, I’m here. Are you ok?”

“…define ok?” Pidge’s voice crackled over the comlink. That was enough for Shiro.

“I’m coming, give me a minute, I’m coming, Katie.”

She had a little campsite of sorts on a miraculously dry patch of higher ground. The Green Lion was parked near a stream that Shiro hoped was clean, and there was a small firepit, which was clever thinking—no point in wasting energy using the Lion’s heating system when there were other options. Shiro scrambled out of black as soon as he landed, and Pidge was down her ramp almost as fast. He noticed her left arm from elbow to hand was crudely wrapped in bandages. Injury aside, she tackle hugged him. He bent slightly, hugging back as tightly as he dared. He still didn’t trust the strength of his robotic arm.

“You came,” she mumbled, pulling away. Nervously, she took her brother’s glasses with the altered lenses off and polished them on a clean patch of her muddy hoodie, pulled on over her armor. “I thought…”

“What?” Shiro asked, swaying a little from fatigue but stable enough.

“I thought maybe everyone was…gone. Or that…I mean, getting back to the Castle’s the important thing, but Green needs some work so we couldn’t, and I thought..”

“That we’d leave you? That _I’d_ leave you here?”

“No! Just that it would take more time. I mean, you need all the lions for Voltron, but Lance and Keith are better pilots, and them and Hunk have bayards that are useful weapons, not just for last ditch sneak attacks but actually useful for fighting, so it would have made more sense to get them…well, first.”  Her mouth twitched.

Shiro shook his head. “All the more reason to come after you first. By your logic, they’re better able to protect themselves—not that you can’t, you saved all our lives when the Galra took over the Castle, but—“

“Thanks. For coming. I don’t suppose you’ve got any spare parts on Black? I need some wires to fix what got damaged when we crashed.”

“I might, I’m honestly not really sure. Help me look? And let me do something about that bandage, where did you learn first aid?”

Pidge shrugged. “Points for trying?”

 “Points for not dying of infection,” Shiro shot back, opening Black’s walkway. A pang shot through him as he remembered similar banter with Matt, with Commander Holt, playful teasing that hid mild concern when Matt hadn’t eaten his “space peas” one night because of an upset stomach, or Samuel had complained that Shiro’s snoring reminded him of how much he missed Rover, the family puppy. He squeezed the fingers on his human hand briefly, and continued.

While pidge hunted for the spare parts, Shiro dug out the medkit and made her sit still long enough to properly clean and wrap the shallow gash, already healing. She grumbled the entire time, another thing she shared with Matt. A cut from a sharp metal edge, knocking his head against the back of his chair when Shiro’d had to over-correct their flight path, burns from touching hot things before they were cool enough, he’d always tried to patch himself up. Shiro wondered how his leg had recovered, or if the Galra had done what they’d done to him when something had finally ruined his arm, and replaced it.

“Aha!” Pidge held up a small box triumphantly. “Found them!” she looked at her wrapped arm. “ Thanks. It does feel better, I guess.”

“You work on Green, I’ll work on dinner?” Shiro offered. The sooner they got off Swamp Planet, the better.

“Sounds good. I tested the water in that stream, it’s safe enough but boiling it’s probably a good plan, that’s what I’ve been doing.”

“Alright. I’m no Hunk, but Space Peas and Space Goo can’t be that different. Just add water, right?”

 “I’ve got more than goo. Remember, I was the only one who packed before this all started. I think there may be a granola bar or two left. I’ve been saving them.”

“From yourself or from Lance?”

She stuck out her tongue, and he reached out to ruffle her hair. It wasn’t until he’d drawn back to get started boiling water that he realized he’d used his Galra hand.

* * *

 

Pidge worked on Green until dinner—space goo, half a granola bar each, and different colored space goo—and went right back to it after. Shiro gave up trying to convince her to sleep, since he knew he wouldn’t be sleeping much, either. Meditation was easier.

Over breakfast of yet more space goo—peanut butter flavored, this time—Pidge announced that the repairs were done. Cloaking and the thrusters both were fixed.

Shiro blinked. “That was fast.”

“I just needed the parts. It wasn’t hard. I mean messing with things in the Castle is because I’m still figuring out Altean, but Green can sort of point me in the right direction when I’m working on her, y’know? Like, I just get this feeling where things have to fit, what’s wrong.” Pidge shrugged.

“Oh. That makes sense,” Shiro said. He stood, stretching, and started to dismantle the campsite. “We should get moving. From Black’s map, the others were pretty far away. Do you know if any of this stuff’s edible?” he pointed at the plantlife.

“I do not,” Pidge said, scrambling to move the firepit rocks. Better not to leave any trace that they were here, in case the Galra used that as a way to map their progress. She was about to voice that concern to Shiro when she heard something, low and distant. Or, no, she didn’t. It wasn’t in her ears, not exactly. It was as if it were a memory of hearing something, called to the forefront of her mind, or as if someone else was hearing it, and she just knew. She looked up at Green. “Shit.”

“Language,” Shiro called over his shoulder and promptly dropped the rock he’d been hefting to toss in the river. “What is it?”

“I hear—Green hears—I think—there’s something coming. It might be the other!”

Shiro went still for a moment, closing his eyes, trying to tap into Black’s senses, so much keener than his own. He knew that sound as well as he knew his own heartbeat.

 Galra ships, far off but not so far that they could waste time.

“Pidge.” Shiro’s voice was hard. “Get in your Lion, activate your cloaking, and get out of here, now.”

“What?!”

“It’s them. The Galra. You and Green heard Galra ships. You go, I’ll distract them.”

“What about you? Black doesn’t have cloaking or—“ Pidge stared up at him, frozen.

“If they don’t find someone, they’ll keep looking until they do. Your cloaking won’t last forever. Better they find me, and you’ll be able to get away. Now go.”

“I’m not leaving you!”

“There’s not much time!” Shiro could hear the sound getting louder. They’d have minutes, maybe two, maybe less.

Pidge planted her feet. “I can’t lose any more family.”

Shiro thought his heart might break. “I already failed your family once, I won’t do it again. Go.”

She looked at him, mouth open as if he’d slapped her.

“I won’t!”

“Katie, that’s an order. Hurry.” She looked at him, about to argue. “Please.”

“I—“ Pidge closed her eyes behind the glasses she still wore. “Be careful.”

“I will, but you have to—now, go, quick.”

She slapped through the mud, scampering into Green in seconds. The Lion shimmered for a heartbeat and vanished, none too soon. A Shadow crossed the top of the trees. Shiro leaned a hand on Black. He could feel her urge to run in his bones, as if it was his own entirely, not half from each. _Shield yourself,_ he thought as hard as he could, hoping She’d understand, somehow. _Don’t let Zarkon take you away from yourself. Don’t let him corrupt you like he will me._

The ship hovered, circling back.

Shiro felt his arm erupt into the purple blade, the sharp chill in his veins that always accompanied the weapon startling him into higher awareness. He hoped Katie had gotten away, but he couldn’t take to the sky, for fear of leading them in whatever direction she’d gone. So he held his arm aloft, a beacon.

The Galra ship didn’t even bother to land.

Pidge had not gone far, slinking back into the cover of the trees. That and the cloaking protected her and Green well enough. It had too, because she—they—couldn’t just abandon Shiro and Black to their fate. Not after all the nights Shiro woke up in a panic, terrified of some nightmare or memory nothing could ease. The Galra had taken her father and her brother. They couldn’t have Shiro too, not again.

She had to muffle a cry, even if no one would have heard it, when the brilliant purple light swallowed Shiro and Black, dragging them up into the monster of a ship like rag dolls. There had to be something she could do, some way to save them. She’d taken on the Galra on her own before, but that had been on her own turf, and not so many of them….

 _Honor the sacrifice._ The thought flowed into her mind, not in so many words, images that somehow conveyed the feeling. Pidge shook her head and glared at the controls.  

“No. We’re not leaving them, we can’t.”

The feeling changed, a rumbling that came from all around her and yet inside, almost a purr.

 _I chose you well_ , the thought seemed to be.

Pidge and Green slipped through the trees, following the Galra ship silently.

 _Hang on._ Pidge wasn’t sure if that was her own thought or Green’s.  It hardly mattered. _Just hang on._

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> More may come eventually in Inspiration is a thing.


End file.
